Murder in Kentish Town by Sabina Manea

Author:Sabina Manea [Manea, Sabina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-09-26T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Walter Chanler stood outside Kentish Town police station and unusually found himself a little nervous. After all, he wasn’t the type for whom police stations were a common port of call. In fact, he had never been in trouble in his life, certainly not beyond stealing an apple or two from the neighbour’s orchard as a child, back home in South Carolina. He steeled himself and walked in as confidently as he could, asking to see DCI Carliss.

‘Walter, come in.’ The inspector beckoned the guest into his office, where Lucia was waiting with bated breath to hear the news of the escapade. ‘Have a seat.’

Lucia couldn’t wait any longer. ‘So, tell us. How did it go last night?’

‘Good, I think. They’re certainly an interesting bunch, to put it mildly,’ replied Walter with a wry smile. He definitely looked like he had been enjoying himself.

‘You have to tell us everything. And don’t scrimp on any detail, please, however insignificant it may have seemed at the time,’ interjected Lucia.

‘OK. I turned up just after seven. I rang the doorbell, and it took a good few minutes and a couple of aggressive goes on it for someone to answer. I could hear voices inside, so I knew someone was in. Raised voices, I should say, a man and a woman, though I couldn’t really make out what they were saying. It didn’t sound particularly friendly, in any case. Darius eventually let me in. I’m pretty sure he’d forgotten I was supposed to be turning up, because he looked at me as if I had three heads. I said my piece and reminded him that I’d been recommended by Christina, and he let me in.’

Lucia had done some masterful pulling of strings to engineer Walter’s admittance to Aurora Borealis. Nina’s tangled web of connections had proved crucial yet again. Christina Sellers was a professional socialite and frequenter of just about every art or literary event in the metropolis. She and Nina went way back, having survived the ordeal of boarding school together, though their paths momentarily split when Nina went to Cambridge, and Christina chose the less intellectually demanding option of secretarial college. This was a natural career progression for a sharp but fundamentally lazy rich girl, and it ensured the effective ensnaring of a suitable husband that would keep her in the style that she was accustomed to. While Rupert Sellers was busy toiling away in his secretive Mayfair hedge fund offices, his wife was busy working the party circuit and hanging out with the likes of Darius Major. As a result, Christina didn’t take much persuading to recommend Walter as the kind of chap that would fit in well with the ethos of Aurora Borealis.

‘Who was there?’ asked Lucia.

‘Just Darius and Marie. As soon as I walked in, it was clear they’d been arguing. She was in a huff – all crossed arms and nasty looks in his direction. She tried to mellow a bit for my sake, but she wasn’t fooling anyone.

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